Pix #7 - A familiar scene around Fostoria during 1913-1919
were the Allen test car drivers. Here you see a group of them and the
cars which they tested, lined up on Wood Street at Plant #2.

Fostoria now has a 1918 model automobile produced by The
Allen Motor Co., one of two car manufacturers, one right here in town.
The antique Allen will remain in The Fostoria Area Historical Society
Museum, having been purchased from William "Bill" Murphy, local Realtor
and antique car buff.

Readers who have not already visited the museum to see
the old Allen should do so, since today's article tells the tale of
the Allen Motor Co., and the part if played in the town's industrial
scene.

Potluck article of October 30, 1980, told about the Peabody
Buggy Co., in a way predecessor to The Allen Motor Co. That article
detailed the advent and growth of the buggy and wagon business in our
city with Peabody being the largest.

Peabody was headed up by E.W. and W.O. Allen, brothers
who contributed much on the industrial scene in Fostoria. When the horseless
carriage made its winning bid to replace the horse and buggy, the Allen
brothers moved with the trend and planned to switch too.

1913 STARTING DATE

A news item in The Review Daily/Weekly (predecessor to
Review Times) of Jan. 6, 1913, announced that Peabody had leased the
American Muslin Underwear Co. to make auto parts under the name of Allen
Motor Co., and to build a limited quantity of cars that year.

The announcement listed J.E. Wright, who had been with
the Columbia Buggy Co., Hamilton, as sales manager of the new company.
Frank Blaser, superintendent, and Harry Reinboehl, chief engineer. Peabody
and Columbia were said to have had 1,500 buggy dealers, of which 50
percent were already car dealers too; therefore, the limited production
of the new Allen Motor Car was considered assured.

The years 1913 through 1915 must have been busy times
for all who were engaged with The Allen Motor Co. and exciting for the
townspeople as they read in the news columns more stories about the
continuing growth of Fostoria's new industry; the possibility for employment;
and witnessed the test drivers buzzing around the streets on car chassis
equipped wit only the motors.

HAD FOUR PLANTS

Incidentally, the site of the Anderson Muslin Underwear
Co., mentioned earlier, was at the corner of Wood and North Streets,
where the YMCA tennis courts and parking lot is now. In more recent
years, the A.C. Hoyt Seed Co. building was there, as it was back then
acquired by Allen Motor Co. In that building, which became known as
Plant No. 1, all final assembly and inspection of the new cars were
done.

In the process of further organizing the new company and
getting geared up for full production, the Atlas Plant, which occupied
all of the area on the west side of Wood Street from Center to North
was acquired. That site is where the Post Office is now. The building
was then remodeled to accommodate the manufacture of frames and chassis
assembly and testing. That plant was known as Plant No. 2

The old Peabody Buggy plant on North Union, the location
of Bendix, now was used for the manufacture of bodies and tops and was
named Plant No. 4.

Motors and transmissions for the new Allen cars were produced
in Bucyrus in a factory owned by L.A. Sommers, who had already been
building motors for other car manufacturers. Soon after Allen Motor
Co. was organized, Sommers merged his interests with those of Allen.
That factory became known as Plant No. 3. Sommers became Allen's factory
manager and chief engineer. In all four facilities for manufacturing.
Allen had 250,000 square feet of space.

EXHIBIT AT N.Y. SHOW

The Review published a story in the Jan. 14, 1915, edition
which told of the Allen exhibit at the New York Show for Car Manufacturers
at Grand Center Palace. In attendance at the show was W.O. Allen, treasurer
and general manager; J.E. Wright, sales manager; and L.A. Sommers.

At the show, Allen exhibited the "33" Roadster, "34" Touring,
"35" Touring, and "40" Touring cars. W.O. Allen returning from the show,
predicted the "34" at $895, would be a big seller. The full line was
priced from $875 to $1,395. At that time the company had orders for
3,000 cars and reception at the show was said to be excellent.

Someone in the Allen company, or perhaps in their advertising
agency, had appropriately written a poem about the Allen "34" and it
was published in The Review:

There are cars that cost but little,
there are cars that cost a pile;
People build some cars for service,
others are built for style;
There are cars of many sizes, large
and medium and small;
Cars that go to beat the dickens, cars that never go at all;
There are homely cars and graceful,
We could name them by the score,
But for niftiness and value, get an
Allen "34"

INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS

With excellent knowledge to design and build cars, plenty
of well-equipped manufacturing space; and an apparently receptive market,
it appeared that the new company would need 400-600 employees to turn
out needed volume.

Whereas, The Peabody Buggy Co. had been modest in its
organization structure, the Allen organization consisted of many knowledgeable
men, in addition to the Allen brothers, J.E. Wright and L.A. Sommers.

Graton H. Baker of The City National Bank of Tiffin was
first vice president. Judge George F. Schroth, vice president of City
National Bank of Tiffin and president of Sterling Emery Wheel Co., Tiffin,
was secretary and legal advisor. Directors were J.A. Thomas, Fostorian
involved in manufacturing banking and real estate holdings; GEorge W.
Campbell, Toledo, involving in the lumber and insurance field; W.H.
Reedy, sole owner of Ready Foundry, Chicago, and stockholder of a Chicago
bank; F.F. Prentiss, Cleveland, vice president of Cleveland Twist Drill
and active in many other commercial and civic enterprises in that city.

By April 1917, Allen Motor Co., had purchased 70 acres
bounded by North, Union, Culbertson and Main Streets, to be devloped
and known as Allendale. Plans were to remodel the lime kiln plant (the
old Fostoris Pressed Steel) to produce sheet metal parts.

There is no evidence that expansion plans for that development
were ever completed. According to information I have heard from various
Fostorians, The Fostoria Pressed Steel organized in 1917, produced some
sheet metal parts for Allen cars, including the frames.

WELL-MADE CARS

According to Bill Murphy, the Allen cars were well designed
and built; perhaps too much so, and equally as high in price, to make
it impossible to get enough of the market to stay in business. In fact
Ford, was making some models which sold for less than $400. Those models
did not meet the Allen quality, but they did take a large part of the
market. The Allen cars were more in the class of Cadillacs, according
to Murphy.

A few of the 1919 Allens were possibly made in Fostoria,
but by sometime that year, The Allen Motor Co. was taken over by a group
of investors from Columbus, where production of cars continued under
the Allen name. L.A. Sommers and his Bucyrus plant was not included
in the sale.

A 1919 advertisement in The Saturday Evening Post listed
The Allen Motor Co. as Columbus, Ohio, where cars continued to be produced
through 1921. The new owners were faced with the same problem...too
good, too high priced to sell sufficient volume.

Fostoria's dream of being a "motor city" had vanished,
as well as the job market for both men and women. At another time, Ford
Motor Co. had considered Fostoria as a location for a factory, but for
reasons which never were published as far as this author knows, it never
materialized.

The accompanying photos provide readers glimpses of The
Allen Motor Co., its products and nostalgic scenes which some will remember.